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I've been flummoxed by the legislature's abdication of power for awhile now too, but your post brought a disturbing idea into my head. What if this abdication a
by troyvit 3y ago
I've been flummoxed by the legislature's abdication of power for awhile now too, but your post brought a disturbing idea into my head. What if this abdication actually _is_ the will of the people? From my limited exposure it seems that the only people who communicate with their legislators are the most polarized constituents who would demand obstruction.
- thomascgalvin 3y agoI don't think people want the legislature to cede its power to the other branches, but I do think the other branches are easier to understand. When the President issues an executive order, or a court issues a ruling, there are one, three, or nine people. It conforms more to what people think of as "rulership," and it allows for "easy" "victories" that route around the long and clumsy process of legislation. But you do point out a significant problem, regarding polarized constituents. More than just communication, it's usually the most polarized members of a party who take part in the primaries. This has the effect of dragging politics towards the extremes, rather than the center, and makes cooperation between parties essentially impossible. Removing first past the post, through ranked choice or some other mathematically superior method of handling elections, would do a lot to correct that.
- balderdash 3y agoI wish I could find it - but there was a great study that’s probability 20-30years old that basically said legislators did an excellent job of representing their constituents interests - but that voters were not rational (they wanted it cheap, fast, and good, but we’re not willing to pick two) and hence the disconnect